Aqua IV 0.11
Documentation Editor Engine API
Documentation /Engine / Playing a map

Hero control, aiming and bars

These are the parts of the in-game interface that make playing one hero feel like a hero game. Every one of them is presentation only: it changes what you see and when a key becomes a command, never what the simulation does, so they work the same in an online game and every player keeps their own choices. The settings are on the Controls and Game pages of the settings and are stored with your account.

Hero focus

With hero focus on, your hero stays the selection and the target of every order. You can still click other units and buildings to read their stats in the unit panel, but the selection does not leave the hero (a click, a box, a group key, Tab or the palette cannot end the mode). A banner at the top centre says which hero and shows the way out: hold the release key and the ring in the banner fills; let go early and nothing happens.

Settings: whether the hero attacks by itself when an enemy is in range (like League of Legends), what Space does, whether the mode starts when a hero is picked, and whether the camera is locked to the hero from the start.

Camera modes

While hero focus is on, the camera has three modes (the key to cycle them is </kbd> by default, rebindable):

  • Free: the camera is yours (screen edge, arrows, minimap); Space snaps to the hero.
  • Fixed: locked on the hero, no edge scroll.
  • Dynamic: the hero stays near the middle and the view leans towards the pointer, easing back when the pointer rests near the middle or leaves the window. Settings: how far it leans, how smoothly, the dead zone in the middle, and whether the screen edge also scrolls in Free mode.

When your hero dies, the screen dims a little and the camera is freed so you can look around while you wait; the strength can be changed or turned off.

Casting and aim indicators

An ability can be cast three ways, set for all abilities and, if you like, per key (the four hero abilities and the six item slots):

  • Normal: the key arms the ability, a click on the target casts it. Esc or a right click takes it back.
  • Quick cast: the key arms it and it casts at the pointer on the next press of the key, or on a click anywhere.
  • Instant cast: the key casts at once at the pointer. A point beyond the range is pulled onto the range ring.

While an ability is armed the ground shows what it will do: a ring for its range, and for the shape of the ability a line, a cone, an arc or a ring of its area, from the caster to the pointer. Hovering an ability button draws its range ring and a one-line summary. The style is Range ring, Ring and line, or Ring, line and area, and the indicators can be switched off.

While an ability that names its damage is armed, the health bar of the enemy under the pointer shows the damage it would do as a hot orange slice of the bar (see health bar ticks below).

The utility slot

A slot of its own, apart from the abilities and the inventory, holds one tool: a stealth ward (hidden from the enemy unless revealed, gives sight, lasts 90 seconds, three per player, three hits destroy it), a farsight ward or the sweeper, which clears enemy wards. A pink ward is a consumable from the inventory, not a tool of this slot. The slot shows the icon, a ring that fills while the next charge comes back, one pip per charge, and its key (V by default). Next to one of your own buildings two small buttons offer the other tools; swapping has a short delay shown as a veil with the seconds.

Floating combat text

Numbers and words rise over a unit when something happens to it: damage in a colour by type (physical, magic and true damage have their own marks besides their colour), a larger number for a big blow, a burst for a critical strike, healing, mana, experience, a miss, dodge, block or immune, a stun. Only what is on the screen is made, so a battle of thousands costs next to nothing for what nobody sees.

The Game page sets which kinds show, whose numbers (yours, allies', enemies'), their size, and whether a critical strike has a sound. The 123 button under the minimap opens a quick popover with one chip per kind, lit while the kind shows.

Health bar tick marks

Thin vertical lines across a health bar every N hit points, heavier every 5N and heaviest every 10N, as in League of Legends, so you read roughly how much health a unit has and how much an ability's damage is. Off by default.

  • Tick marks on health bars: on or off. When off they cost nothing.
  • Step: Auto picks one from the unit's maximum health (a tick every 100 on a 1,200 hit point hero, every 1,000 on a 10,000 one, at most about 14 on a bar) or a fixed number of hit points. A bar too short to show ticks apart gets none, and the step grows until two ticks are at least a few pixels apart.
  • Style: lines (across the whole bar), notches (short ticks rising from the bottom), segments (the bar cut into blocks) or ruler (ticks under the bar).
  • Whose: your own, allies, enemies, heroes, buildings. Where: bars over units in the world, the selection card and the hero card.

The keys in engine.toml are bar_ticks, bar_tick_step, bar_tick_who, bar_tick_where and bar_tick_style.

The players overlay

Hold Tab in a game and a card under the hero banner shows who is in it: one row per player grouped by team, with the colour and name, the hero (picture and level) when you may see it, a state chip and a ping chip. Only what is really known is shown; a missing fact is a missing chip. In an online game it shows what the server tells every player (colour, name, team, state, ping), never another player's resources.

Pointers

Two sets of pointers are drawn by the engine: Modern (the default, a glassy water finish) and Classic. The Classic set has drawings for hover, pressed, text, busy, attack-move, patrol, hold, repair, rally, drag, pan, ping and resize. Choose the set in the settings.

The feedback form

F8, the Send feedback link beside the version number on the start screens, the Report this game button on the results screen and the command palette open the feedback form inside the game: pick bug, idea, praise or question, write at least 10 characters and press Ctrl Enter. "What we send" lists every part with a tick and Show me exactly; the log, settings and screenshot are off unless you tick them. You get a reference and a one-time token you can copy to withdraw the report; when you are offline the report is kept on your computer and sent the next time the game starts. Inside a running game the form is not wired yet.